Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information processing, and more specifically to a system and method for providing active context information, within an information processing system, which indicates the active context of an object in relation to contextually associated objects.
Description of the Related Art
Information processing systems include computer systems and other electronic data systems, such as personal digital assistants. Users often interact with applications and navigate through a variety of objects. The objects may be any displayable entity such as files, pages, or images. Objects selected during navigation may be contextually associated with each other. Knowledge of the context of a currently displayed file can improve the situational awareness of the user. For example, specific information related to (i) the contact, (ii) an employer of the contact, (iii) a location of the contact, (iv) any prior quotes to the contact, and (v) prior orders of the contact or company may all be contextually related to the event, such as a conversation, at hand.
Several problems arise from navigating to and accessing many different types of related information associated with a particular page, file, image, or other object. Inherent confusion exists when navigating to and accessing many different types of information, which are associated with a particular file, image, or other object. For example, a user may be working with a sales call center application. Files related to the customer, such as customer contact information, customer profile, current or previous sales quotes, and current or previous orders, may all be needed to appropriately converse with a client. Although contextually related, this information may not be stored in a composite file, but rather is often stored in individual files, which are separately accessed. The complexity and difficulty of the problem magnifies when the information system accessed by the user contains several objects, such as the objects associated with items (i) through (v). Additionally, the complexity and difficulty of the problem increases when the user navigates through many objects, only some of which are contextually related.
Another problem arises because often users are on the phone with customers, and time is of essence. The call center application user preferably needs virtually instant access to any information related to their customer client without waiting on slow networks, without excessive clicking through multiple screens, and without excessive load time.
Well-known “roll-over” or “mouse-over” technology permits a user to maneuver a curser over a particular object upon which additional information can be displayed about the object. However, such additional information lacks, for example, dynamic context, such as navigational history context, and linking ability.
Other well-known technologies use navigational hierarchy information in an attempt to solve the above problems. However, each file accessed during navigation is located at some point in the hierarchy, regardless of whether it is useful or not from a context perspective. Hyperlinks have also been provided as a way to link to associated documents. However, hyperlinks require load time and may not represent the particular information that a user desires. Inherent processing delays associated with, for example, processing the requested link and accessing, retrieving, and displaying the linked object pose particularly acute problems when engaged in real-time customer conversation. Conventional hierarchies not only often suffer from inherent processing delays but can also be large and lack contextual relationships. Thus, navigating through a hierarchy to locate contextual objects while engaged in real-time conversation can consume an unacceptable amount of time and tax a user's ability to focus on multiple tasks.
Another problem arises when multiple users work together on an endeavor where sharing information is beneficial. Conventional technology has failed to provide an efficient solution that allows multiple users to efficiently and easily access multiple contextually associated objects.